In the last general elections, in which he contested for president, his party had 74,059 votes according to INEC. But Chris Okotie, religious leader and politician, doubts this figure, and says he has plans to ensure that the next election is different. He talks on this; his aspirations; and other issues.
Excerpts:
Why God would allow the (electoral) crises to persist
Because there is a word in the scripture that is called long suffering, and he delays justice because of the poor that will suffer. If we break into hostilities, it is these rich men that will first abscond. So many times, the Lord is merciful because of we, the people; not because he wants to perpetuate those people in power, but because he is careful.
The prophecy concerning the PDP has come forth and they are going to fight each other and destroy each other because that is how evil is terminated. We can’t fight them. They are too strong for us. So they must fight each other.
His previous assertions that he would president in 2003 and 2007
That is what I’m saying, that my time will come. I already quoted Abraham Lincoln in the sense that I am so sure that it is a divine mandate. All I have to do is wait for the right time and not compromise my philosophy or compromise my faith and join a conglomerate of men and women who call themselves political parties, whereas they are just a conscription of men and women of anti-theatrical philosophies who have no ideological connectivity and their only common denominator is their desire to annex wealth.
Because I believe in a Nigeria where truth reigns; a fresh Nigeria which our party symbolises in F-Faith, R-Responsibility, E-Equality, S-Security and H-Hope. This is the philosophy upon which I have erected the citadel of my confidence because I believe only a fresh Nigerian can salvage this nation. All this cosmetic and superficial activity that are going on by the ruling party is a journey in futility. This will also drift us back to square one, which we have always been.
How soon the drift will happen
If we perpetuate a PDP government, which I think Nigeria cannot afford, we will be back to square one and that is a recipe for extinction. The party is incapacitated, ab initio. But the party has been ruling for 12 years. It was necessary for Nigerians to reach a point of self-examination and re-assessment of this slavery.
Our leaders have betrayed us on a large scale and it takes a while to come to that realisation, but global events, as seen in the angry youth protest in Abuja,means Nigerians are recognising what they have to do without anybody galvanising them. It is an evolution. Mao Tse Tung once said if people no longer fear your power, it is because another power is on its way and that is what we are seeing here. I believe with all my heart that we are seeing the last vestiges of this oppressive leadership of the PDP.
I believe our people are coming to a place where they are willing to make the necessary sacrifice to emancipate themselves, and that the money politics that the PDP has played for so many years is gradually frittering out and there is going to be an implosion within the party that will totally fragment it to the extent that it will be totally powerless.
His silence when activists were protesting for rule of law
I do not know the kind of newspapers you read, but I made my opinion known and at some point in time, I called for an interim government to be installed so that the entire malady that surrounded the executive could be cleared and we will move on.
The nation was inundated by the soap opera that transpired with incapacitation of late President Yar’Adua, and even though we had urged the PDP to declare his whereabouts and be transparent, nobody paid attention and we did not want to sound insensitive with the fact that the president is incapacitated and be more interested in politics. So, the sentiment of it all was something that PDP capitalised on. But it was not because we were not quick to articulate our views on the impact.
How he intends to tackle problems such as corruption, unemployment, and power
Let me put this in proper context; campaigns have not begun. What I just did was to articulate my desire to run for the office. We are not supposed to engage in any campaign until INEC says so. I can only give you observations that I have made concerning the things that I have seen in the country from a very constructive view-point. I believe the reason why corruption has been able to flourish is because there is an enabling environment.
If you want to incapacitate those who participate in corruption, you will have to change the environment, not just engender punitive measures. It has to be juxtaposed with moral instruction for there to be meaningful change. For instance if you take a fish out of water, it cannot function; if you take an evil man into heaven, he cannot function, so there are certain mechanisms in government that make it possible for this charlatans to operate and until we dismantle this mechanism, corruption will (only) at best be tackled on the punitive level which is where you have the EFCC and all of those things. The 10 commandments didn’t even save Israel, not to talk about EFCC saving Nigeria.
We also need to understand that there is cooperation between these charlatans and those who are in the supervisory role. This is a major characteristic of the PDP as seen in the House of Representatives, where the speaker was indicted some months ago and we are right back at it. That is why I respect the former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, because he was bold enough to address that. When I become president, we will change the environment. If you go back a few years when Yar’Adua was installed as head of state, because they had nothing to offer, they came with a nominal seven point agenda with nothing on ground to corroborate the position.
The laws of dialectical Materialism by Karl Marx, which involve having a concept called the thesis, you find a concept that works against the thesis called the anti-thesis, then both of them synthesize together to form what is called synthesis which can be translated into chaos and this what PDP does. They create chaos, then they get a group within the party to oppose the chaos and then they resolve the problems within the two groups and synthesize the third position, which is where we are headed in the first place.
So they create a problem and get a group of people to fight it, like when they created the Yar’Adua problem. They create that chaos and buy time using the diversionary tactics that makes people then think; oh this is an emergency situation whilst they have nothing to offer. Government is not transparent in this country and they have refused to give room to the fourth estate (journalism) to do what they are mentally meant to do.
God and the presidential system
The whole concept of the presidential system comes from the bible, because God is our law-giver; that is how you get the legislature; God is our judge, so you have the judiciary; God is our king, you have the executive. That is how it was patterned and it was devised as a concept of government. We need a fourth concept that will articulate the plans on the purpose of the government to the people.
That is how the press came about. The new Nigeria of our dreams that will soon transpire must be a government of integrity. It must understand that Nigeria is no longer a pariah nation, that we live in a millennium where the quest for innovation knows no frontiers and that we are no longer isolated in some dark continent. So, a Chris Okotie government will re-establish government in its true definition, where the people are a part of it and know what is going on.
His ability to build a structure that could win elections
If you take the government of this nation in tandem, maybe from the civil war, you will discover that there has always being a divine intervention at some point and recent events corroborate my saying.
Look at former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who was out of government, incarcerated for a phantom coup, from where he became the president of Nigeria. He was not involved in any politics at that time, in terms of democratic process, but he became the head of state. The late Yar’Adua, relatively unknown with little or no quality Pedigree more or less, or his vice, Goodluck Jonathan, probably known regionally, not at on the national platform but today he is our President, because there is a divine intervention in the affairs of this country. That is why it imperative for a Chris Okotie to pontificate on the affairs of this country that identifies him as a credible aspirant for that office; so that when the opportunity presents itself, it will be easy to say this is the man.
Possibilities of merger with other political parties
Talks have already commenced and, in due time, we will unveil our strategy. The talks have always been on since as far back as the last two elections that I contested, where some political parties approached me because of my credibility. But I will not compromise my sense of purpose to give Nigerians the right leadership by jumping at people who do not share the same values as FRESH. Adherence to principles invokes respect, as all kind of overtures have come from different political parties with most of them having leaders who do not have the kind of intellectual capacity that is necessary for the kind of government they are trying to put in place. But I have stayed with my principle. I believe, just like Abraham Lincoln said, “I will study and wait.”
What happens to his church if he becomes president
It will be bigger. When God was sending Jesus to the world, he wanted to make him the political leader of the world, not the spiritual leader. But for him to be the political leader, he had to take the sins of the world through his death. He will return as the governor, as stated in the bible, that will rule with the rod, as a political leader. By this procedure, God patterned Jesus to be a secular leader like Melchizedek during the time of Abraham, so that Jesus can become both a spiritual leader and a political leader. So, somebody like me, I am already a spiritual leader and I will be a political leader because earth was given to man to rule. Only a righteous government can exalt a nation.
Ethnicity and zoning formula in Nigerian political parties
We have gone beyond that. Zoning is a PDP mechanism and anybody clamouring for these issues cannot adduce evidence to substantiate that position. The best election in this country was won by a Muslim-Muslim ticket, that everyone across the nation voted for. Such clamour is a narrow perspective of politicians who are unable by any sweat of their imagination to acquire political recognition, and so they think the only way they can is to polarize the polity along religious and ethnic divide.
The process of galvanising ethnicity in political parties is anachronistic, because the experience we have disproves that philosophy. What Nigerians are looking for today is a credible candidate, irrespective of where he/she is from, because both the northerners and southerners will tell you that their leaders have betrayed them. Zoning is the business of the PDP, a gargantuan monstrosity, and PDP is not Nigeria. I will run for the office of the president, irrespective of the fact that Mr. Jonathan is also from the south.
The experience of his divorce and second marriage
Entering the covenant of marriage is the highest possible level of spiritual responsibility anybody can assume, because it authenticates the mystery of the God head. I have found myself in a better place of understanding which gives a conscious of responsibility for this life
